‘Man of Steel’ Rumors: JGL Denies Playing Batman; Will Jimmy Olsen Be a Girl?

Published 2 years ago
by
Ben Moore
, Updated June 7th, 2014 at 10:21 am,

At the end of Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, John “Robin” Blake (as played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was given the keys to the Batcave, which seemed to strongly hint that he would take up the mantle of Batman in Bruce Wayne’s absence. The ending gave way to rumors that JGL might reprise that role, Batsuit and all, in Man of Steel, Justice League, and the next Batman film(s). His reps, of course, denied the possibility, but the rumors persist regardless.

On the rumor that he might have a cameo as Batman in Man of Steel – courtesy of MTV – Joseph Gordon-Levitt said:

“I hadn’t heard that one. It just goes to show how much you can believe rumors … I don’t think you should believe in any of them. If there’s something I’m going to be in, I’m going to tell you about it. I put it on my Twitter that I was in ‘Sin City 2′ – so TRUST me, I’ll tell you.”

The one thing that’s extremely difficult to believe here is that JGL somehow managed to not hear about the rumor that he might show up in Man of Steel (or Justice League) as Batman. As previously stated, his reps certainly heard about it. So does that mean that he’s hiding something? Or are we just looking too hard for something that’s not there?

Aside from the denials, the one bit of evidence that truly pushes back against the Batman/Man of Steel rumor is that (according to reports) Levitt was seriously considering taking on the role of Star-Lord in Marvel’s forthcoming Guardians of the Galaxy film. It seems unlikely that Levitt would even mull over signing on with the other team, much less in a sizable role for a sizable film, if he’d already shot a cameo for Man of Steel (with the intent to become Movie Star Batman for the next half-decade at least).

Whether or not JGL’s going to play Batman or even considering the possibility, the question remains: Should he? Should the Batman who shares the big screen with Superman, Wonder Woman, and the rest of the Justice League be a strange movie version hybrid of all the Robins from the comic book? A man whose training starts and stops at the Gotham Police Academy?

Don’t get me wrong – I enjoyed The Dark Knight Rises from start to finish. I had no problem whatsoever with the character of John Blake (though I confess I cringed just a little bit when the lady at the end yelled at the audience, “HEY EVERYBODY, LOOK, IT’S ROBIN”). That said, the Batman sharing the big screen with the Man of Steel for the very first time should, in my opinion, be Bruce Wayne. He’s the only Batman who can hold his own against gods and aliens and fish-people. That’s because he’s a genius. That’s because he honed his skills – from detection to hand-to-hand fighting and beyond – to nigh-on inhuman perfection, for years and years on end. That’s because he’s Bat-God.

There are those, of course, who hear the word “reboot” and immediately recoil at the thought. It’s an understandable reaction, given the quality of a number of reboots. But the thing about Batman is – he’s infinitely rebootable! It’s in his very nature. There are literally thousands of versions of the character, many of which have been quite successful.

Batman can be extremely campy, a la the Adam West TV series and movie. He can be gritty, a la Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. He can be a gothic detective, as he was in the comic books made by Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams. Or he can be all of the above, as he was in Grant Morrison’s legendary run on the character.

He’s a lot of different things, and that’s what makes him so interesting as a character. But that’s just my take on it.

She can still look up to Clark as a big brother. What I learned from a woman is that if she isn’t interested or attracted to you, then nothing is going to happen – period! Friend-zone. If she isn’t attracted to Clark then she could be a friend who thinks of him as her older brother.

Batman is probably the most versatile character in popular fiction so I 100% agree that he is ‘infinitely rebootable’. However, I still think JGL is playing us for saps and that himselfNolan, Goyer, Ruben fleisher, rian Johnson, zack snyder and Christian bale are all part of some secret DCU movie illuminati. I honestly believe they’re all cooking up something huge for comic-con ala the avengers cast announcement. Until then everybody involved will deny and misdirect EVERYTHING. I also agree that JGL is completely ill equipped to be batman in the justice league universe. That is why he MUST be. He’ll be the agent coulson of the JLA movie, die and be replaced by a Bruce Wayne forced out of retirement. Bring it on!

I agree I think Nolan, his brother, Dc and Warner Bros already have something thought up. I think they made plans for the shared universe a few years ago. The superman movie will not be rushed and I’m sure Bale will return as batman. He may just be sitting in the cave helping out for a while but he will probably don the suit again. JGL will probably be nightwing or a modern version of batman beyond. That’s what I think anyway.

It could unbelievably awesome if that sort of thing is the case. I would not blame Christian Bale if he just flat out did not want to play Batman any more, but Warner/DC has the potential for something absolutely spectacular…and now we play the waiting game.

I want the Batman who stands next to and can cast shadows over the rest of the DC Universe. That is a Batman we have yet to see on the silver screen. So a REBOOT is what is necessary. And the rest of the world should be okay with that.

Since I am watching Smallville, I did have the same reaction with Chloe. So changing Jimmy to Jenny doesn’t upset me. Its not like were changing Clark to Chloe or something drastic like that. Supporting characters’ origin and purity is expendable.

In fact I’ll bet his agent actively encouraged him to test for marvel’s GOTG as part of the negotiation process with warners. Everyone’s supposedly involved is being super coy about their upcoming projects. All seems a little fishy to me.

Deliberately testing for a role you’re not going to take just to make people think you’re not going to play another role? – I know Hollywood can be wacky sometimes, but that’s f’ing ridiculous.

Besides, if JGL were playing Batman, why has Nolan said his take on the character is finished? Why did he say is “Nolanverse” can’t co-exist in the same world with characters like Superman and Green Lantern.
Sure, it can be reasoned that he’s lying to throw people off, but one viewing of his Batman trilogy and a quick read through some JL comics is more than enough one needs to see that his (fantastic) version of the character simply can’t fit in with a world filled with aliens and gods.

You make some big assumptions there about ‘the world’ the justice league movie will be set in. They haven’t made any effort so far to adhere to a comic tone so what makes you think that JLA will be any different. Whether we’re discussing a batman reboot or not, the fact remains that WB expects man of steel to be part of a shared universe. Goyer and everybody involved has explicitly stated that the man of steel has a grounded tone and that they wanted to present a superman that would work in a realistic world. Hmmm, like the Nolanverse perhaps? Not to mention the fact that Nolan is producing the movie. I’m not ignorant of these 2 facts:-
1. That Nolan has said he’s finished telling his batman story. He envisioned a beginning/middle/end to the story.
2. He has said that his batman will not work in the justice leagues world.

Two answers to chew on,
1. If the characters and continuity continue with other filmmakers why does that have any baring on the completeness of nolan’s trilogy. Comics tell self contained stories constantly as part of a bigger tapestry. Most seasons of dexter for example tell their own complete story but are part of a bigger framework.
2. More importantly, I agree that this batman does not work in a justice league world. I believe this was first said somewhere between Batman begins and TDK.
That isn’t what they’re doing. The studios challenge (and the apparent creative direction of MOS supports this) is to MAKE THE JUSTICE LEAGUE AND SUPERMAN WORK IN BATMAN’S WORLD. You see what I did there! I flipped it round like a genius and wrote it in capitols!

This is going to happen. It just makes sense. There is just no way in a million years chance of warners rebooting batman right now. He is the only proven bank attached to this movie and batman/superman will anchor interest to the film. Even if Christian bale doesn’t return they’ll still re-cast in continuity. Now from a story perspective, it’s just more compelling drama to see JGL FAIL as batman forcing Bruce out of retirement.
There is so much more dramatic WEIGHT and gravity in a JLA with the continuity intact. You reboot and you have an exposition heavy mess (not to mention a possibly jarring for some, shift in tone).
I’m not saying that it isn’t possible that someone with giant balls couldn’t make an entertaining rebooted JLA movie. What I am saying is that the task is Herculean, given the turnaround time and goodwill for the current franchise.
They are too lazy.
Everyone’s quick to criticise the idea of JGL as batman for a bit, but the story it presents is intriguing. John Blake wouldn’t make a good batman. Maybe that’s the point. Batman can be anybody, just a symbol. Bruce Wayne the man, through discipline, heightened his mind and body to the point where he can stand toe to toe with superman. A lot of posters here seem to just want a live action DC direct to DVD animated movie.. But you want something more exciting than that. Don’t you want something different?
Sorry for the super long post but I wanted to present a coherent argument.

You make a very good argument and some very good points as well, but I can’t say I agree with you lol.

Before JL was announced, a WB executive even said Batman would be rebooted after TDK trilogy and seeing as it’s done now, along with everything Nolan has said about the subject, I believe the character will get a reboot for the JL. The evidence points towards it.

“The studios challenge (and the apparent creative direction of MOS supports this) is to MAKE THE JUSTICE LEAGUE AND SUPERMAN WORK IN BATMAN’S WORLD. You see what I did there! I flipped it round like a genius and wrote it in capitols!”

That would never work. Especially if you take Nolan at his word.

If you take Nolans world where there are no ‘super’ powered heroes there is no way to make Aquaman, Green Lantern, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, etc work.

You would need to associate a semi real world explanation. something that is on the cusp of being real.

While I dislike Nolans Batman as a Batman movie it could have been a Crime/Hero thriller without Batman. (yes I know all the similarities) However all he represented was a self financed James Bond.

How would you explain Superman? Ok.. I will give you Supes. An Alien. At that point how do you explain GL? another Alien intervention? Wonder Woman? Genetically enhanced person? there goes her back story. Aquaman? Flash?

It just cant be logically done within the Nolan verse and still stay true to Nolans (shudder) vision.

Goes without saying I disagree, especially considering the Man of Steel trailer is tonally very similar to Batman Begins. Even the washed out blue color palette marries with the dark knight. As you’ve quoted, I’ve suggested that Justice League forces itself to work into the pre-existing batman trilogy framework. Nolan did say his movies don’t work in a super-powered world. Guess what? They don’t have to. Why? because they’re over! MOS can act to introduce the more outlandish elements of the DCU into this reality (much like Thor served to gateway magical elements into the MCU). What you have to try to remember is that this should more about achieving a consistent TONE of realism as opposed to trying to adhere to out and out realism. Let’s be honest here, TDK trilogy when scrutinised in any depth quickly falls apart if you expect complete realism. These movies (IMO) are awesome because they take the subject matter seriously, and present the world in as realistic a way as can be considered reasonable. Batman’s set in the hyper-reality of gotham, the alien superman makes his first appearance. Is that world now less realistic because a previously unknown element has been introduced? What’s important is, how do the pre existing elements react to this new information. If we (you guy’s sitting at home) watched on the news tomorrow that Atlantis has been discovered (cloaked from detection by Atlantean technology), would we all say ‘OMG! The world isn’t realistic anymore! I’m living in a comic book!’, then all start jumping off buildings and/or climbing up walls? Maybe at first, but after 10 minutes we’d all calm down, and start watching the news to get the low-down.

And for what it’s worth, I also think they’ll use Ryan Reynolds and keep the 1st GL movie continuity despite the inconsistent tone with TDK trilogy and MOS. As much as that movie sucks it’s still pretty far from the worst superhero movie ever and RR definitely wasn’t to blame. “Let’s take off these pants and fly some planes!”

Its barmy of you to think the other movie arcs suc as that of Green Lantern and Man of Steel may not fit with Nolan’s realism. But KEEP IN MIND, Iron Man too had a pretty believable outline for the first film, until Marvel slowly adjusted it into a ridiculously fictious world with Thor and his Loki’s Chitaurian army of cyber bots in The Avengers. Batman’s integrity won’t be destroyed if it melds with the atmosphere of other JLA superheroes.

I don’t mind the gender change. it just seems unnecessary and weird.. we know that this is a new version of Man of Steel, there’s no need to try to differentiate it from the other incarnations with such changes imo

I love JGL, but I am glad that he won’t be Batman. And as for Jenny Olsen, I think that it’s a mistake to replace of the classic characters like that. However, it won’t be too much of a problem for me. I love Jimmy in all of his Superman Fanboy glory, but maybe this is just one of those changes that they felt was necessary to fit the movie into the tone that they’re aiming for.

Thank god he probably won’t be batman!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gosh thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!! Oh I got so worried right there I don’t want him as batman and even though this article doesn’t say much about it I am also hoping that they don’t tie it into the dark knight trilogy. I’m all for trying some different things so I say make jimmy a girl that will be interesting. But oh thank you no JGL as batman (probably), oh thank you, than you ,

It would not be the real superman world as we know it if Olsen is a girl.

Though that girl pictured could tempt me to change my mind.

I hope they keep going on Nolan’s Batman world. I saw the ending of dark knight rises not as the end of Batman’s career but the real beginning. Otherwise he started, fought the joker right away while the Batcave was being rebuilt, retired then came back one more time.

That would be pretty lame.

Also consider that Bruce climbed out of the impossible tunnel because he could not bare to see his city in trouble but now we are to believe that while Gotham is in peril in the future he will be sipping champaign in Paris and reading about it in the newspapers.

No, the end of Rises is the end of Batman’s legend. Batman is dead, Bruce Wayne is not. They parted their ways and Batman left Gotham as a hero. Nothing complex about someone wanting to finally let go of their guilt and move on to a better life.

Plus, no one wants a Dark Knight Returns esque Batman in Justice League. Thats just odd to have everyone in their prime except old man Batman.

Everyone watched Batman die for them. They don’t want someone else to play dress up because they know it’s not the real Batman. That really is the end of his legend and having Blake in a Batman costume would not be the same because they saw Batman die. A reboot is fine

Which is just another example of the self-contradictory nature of the Nolan films. If anyone can be Batman and Bruce Wayne is so willing to let anyone take his place, why did he tell the Batman Gang to stop!?

They dedicated a statue to the Batman who died for them. It wouldn’t be the same if a new Batman all of a sudden just came out of nowhere, it’d only work if they knew Batman was still alive and when he got older, he trained a new Batman.

In other words, Batman Beyond. But having a Beyond esque character in the original Justice League team seems very out of place

That’s where you’re wrong. The statue was erected as a tombstone because Gotham’s citizens thought Batman is dead. The first persons to know otherwise were Alfred and Selina Kyle and they’d be the last ones to spill this bean to other people.

Now that’s not important, what’s important is that if Batman Beyond takes over, the people who he’ll be serving belong to a generation after who Bruce Wayne served,(probably 16 yrs have passed since Bruce took charge, counting TDKR) and they’ll be accustomed to this new change of guard without hesitation.

These transitions have taken place in shared continuities for years. Take for e.g.: 1) Batman: The Animated Series was successfully succeeded by Batman Beyond: TAS and subsequently Gotham’s outlook morphed generations ahead, with former crime forces more tech-savvy and the people were pleased to have an advanced Batman with more efficiency.
2) Ben Reily did a great job in taking over the baton from Peter Parker as the new Scarlet Spider-man when Mary Jane’s foetus got contaminated with radioactive blood. The people didn’t bother at all (except maybe J. Jonah Jameson).

So you see, “IT DOESN’T MATTER IF THE VIGILANTE’S NEW OR OLD, WHAT MATTERS IF HE CAN LIVE UP TO THE JOB” and Batman Beyond surely can.

Batman Beyond in JLA will be quite innovative and will be equivalent to Iron Man in The Avengers, with brains and tech par excellence, whilst Bruce Wayne’s Batman seldom visited the watchtower in the comics and kept filling data logs in the Batcave.

I cant remember if there was a speech about Batman being dead and here is the statue.

If so why would Bruce give JGL the Batcave with the ‘story’ that Batman is a symbol not just one person? If that is not take the Batman mantle up I dont know what is.

However if Batman is dead and Batman (JGL) shows up who would take him serious?

Bruce visited the Watch tower and the Halls quite a lot when I was growing up. Everyone had monitor duty.

I would not put Terry McGinnis/BB anywhere near IM/Tony Stark. The public alone would scream IM wanna be. Terry also got most of his intellect via Bruce. You will then get the questions of where is Bruce? Wasnt he as old as Flash, GL, Supes etc.

You need to remember there are more people that remember Batman then just the people that have been reading the last 10 years.

One last point for the JLA Batman and Bruce. Regardless of who was the lead the tactical brains behind just about everything is Bruce Wayne. That is his justification to be along as a man among god like beings. It is something that Joe Schmo on the streets can relate to.

Not dead??!! LOL! Gordon, Blake and Alfred got Bruce a whole grave for mourning, those schoolchildren along with Blake and the conductor saw Batman pulverize in a puff of nuclear ash cloud, what more evidence do you want??

One more thing, Bruce trained Terry pretty much the same way Ra’s Al Ghul trained Bruce, and trust me, Terry was in a much better position before training with some great moves while Bruce couldn’t even land a punch on his trainer for the first time. This applies to Blake, with his already fortified detective skills, his police training and street smarts, he’ll be moulded into a more efficient Batman in a lesser span of time.

In the comics, Bruce is somewhat between Alfred and Oracle, when he interacts with Terry. The entire sleuthing, goon-bashing and deduction is done by Terry himself. Bruce just gives the leads and locations sometimes to help triangulate the target, cross-reference the databases regarding criminal organizations with Terry.

Just like I said, people just need a symbol to believe in, Bruce or not, they want Batman. Gordon retires post-TDKR, that leaves none of Bruce’s trusted allies to work with which tallies with the fact that now Blake has a new batch of people to serve (there was no Gordon in Beyond).

Au contraire, Vish Gos…there WAS a Gordon in Beyond, but while SHE was the Commissioner (just like her daddy), she WASN’T a huge fan of ANYONE getting back into the Batsuit…because she knew only too well the problems that came with that double life; being Batgirl can do that to you.

No I remember the grave for BRUCE Im talking about Batman. While Bruce is ‘dead’ was it dictated Batman was dead or was it just an assumption on the part of the city? You say they THOUGHT he was dead above so that means (imo) they are not sure.

As for the explosion if Batman (sans Bruce) turns up its easily explained as he jettisoned from the aircraft before the explosion that’s all. No one was close enough to tell.

I never knew BB was in the comics. I was just referring to season 1 of the show.

I was also replying to 007 response of ‘They dedicated a statue to the Batman who died for them. It wouldn’t be the same if a new Batman all of a sudden just came out of nowhere, it’d only work if they knew Batman was still alive and when he got older, he trained a new Batman.’

It was never verified that BATMAN was dead. If Batman shows up a month later in Gotham who is to say it is not THE Batman? Hes been gone before and returned heck twice in one movie. Batman would not be ‘new’ as who would know?

There is no reason to extend THE Batman into some other (cant think of the word) copy… (not the right word but you know) like BB, or Damien or any other iteration of the overall character.

That would be like doing the next Spiderman movie using Miles Morales as Spiderman. That type of depth into the comic book mythos is not needed and (IMO) would not go over well with the general populace.

Lets not get too sure of everything. A few days back, when Nolan was interviewed during a Man of Steel press meet, he was asked whether there’d be a link between his trilogy and the proposed DC Cinematic Universe and he replied, “You know I cant say anything about that, its top secret” If he’d already declared his trilogy as the finale, WHY COULDN’T HE STRAIGHTFORWARDLY DENY AS HE HAD DONE EARLIER??? WHY THIS CHANGE OF TRACK?? Maybe WB has roped in Nolan at the last moment and his trilogy is indeed involved.

Its no big deal about JGL denying this. Even Marion Cotilard vehemently lied about her character in TDKR, Miranda Tate, not being Talia Al Ghul but it turned out otherwise. DC franchises have a habit of being tight-lipped.

I don’t really mind the Jenny Olsen thing. It’s a little odd, but as long as the overall movie is good, I don’t care.

And on the subject of Batman, I do wish that they waited a while before the next reboot (if they feel like they absolutely need to go that route). The Nolan trilogy is still very fresh in our minds and a huge part of the pop culture zeitgeist. I think it would confuse a lot of casual moviegoers if there was a brand new Batman with no connection to the prior films (along with a new Joker, Alfred, etc.) and I think some of us die hards would have an issue with a quick reboot since we always complain about Hollywood retreads. I love Batman and the Nolan films, but like Bruce Wayne in TDKR, I’m ready to move on to other things.

I think there have been enough changes to the mythos in Man of Steel. Too many will have a negative impact on the movie. Keep “JIMMY”, Jimmy. I can handle Fishburn playing Perry White if the filmmakers found him the best fit but to change an iconic character like Jimmy to Jenny, I would have a bit of an issue with.

If John Blake is going to be like Terry Mcguiness(Batman Beyond) in Justice League that’s fine with me, wither it’s Bruce Wayne or Blake or Terry, the advancements of a Batman Beyond costume would fit in with the other heroes.
Jenny Olsen-lol… that could be interesting.

The more I see, the more afraid of hating this movie I become. I actually think Fishburne will make a great Perry White. And I don’t mind alt-universe stories. I sat through 10 years of Smallville. But I have to draw the line at a female Jimmy. And cannot suspend my disbelief long enough to endure a ginger Lois Lane. I like Amy Adams, but she’d have to NAIL Lois’ personality and be better than Margot Kidder and Erica Durance to change my mind.

As far as JGL, I think they painted themselves into a corner. Batman must be Bruce Wayne in any JL movie, and JGL is too old to pick up Batman Beyond.

IMO having someone other than Bruce Wayne being Batman will be a major flub on the part of Snyder, WB/DC and anyone else involved with the decision.
You just can’t do it and why take the risk? There’s nothing to gain and so much to loose.
I don’t mind changes like having Jimmy Olsen changed to a female character or casting a person of a different race when race doesn’t factor into a characters persona.
But not having Bruce Wayne be Batman is again a huge mistake. I’m fully aware that different men have been Batman in the comics but the only people who know that are people who read comics and that’s not going to be anywhere close to the majority of the audience.

I would love to see a post-credits scene where Michael Caine picks up a ringing phone with a news story of Superman on the TV in the background with Bale on the other line asking what the chances were of bringing him back from the dead a second time… Amazing

I can’t think of any ‘valid’ reason to change Jimmy to Jenny. The only reason I can think of why they’d do this is to ‘shake things up’ in this Superman movie to show a greater divide between it and previous incarnations.

If it’s true, it’s a pretty weak attempt for all the wrong reasons.

Might as well make her a lesbian while you’re at it, and she can have an affair with Lois and throw Clark off his game.

Clark/Sup, Jimmy and Lois….you can’t really mess around with them without changing the whole mythos.

I don’t like the idea simply because it seems pointless. Why swap genders? The only reason I could think of is if it somehow ties in to the plot. But even then, it would seem forced and make us wonder why they would go with that plot choice in the first place…

This is a very good opportunity for Warner Brothers to hit two balls in one court- 1) Establish Batman Beyond and 2)Round up another fleet of terrific Batman movies for years to come post-JLA.

Levitt’s John Blake persona, characterization, build and motivation for crime-fighting in TDKR is reminiscent of not Robin, but completely that of Terry Mc. Ginns a.k.a. Batman Beyond, which is further fortified by the fact that Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne has aged similar to the comics and assists Terry as the new Batman. If Blake follows this trend as Batman Beyond post TDKR, we’ll have a superlative set of Batman movies ahead because Batman Beyond has some pretty good story arcs for implementation.

This version of Batman will prove to be a potential contributor to JLA’s combat tones, since he possesses a plethora of advanced gadgets and weaponry including super-flight and invisibility equalling Iron Man in many aspects.

Well, since Jimmy Olsen has never been a love interest, why is that such a big deal? Yes, how dare we try something different that will ultimately not change the fact that we will be watching a Superman movie where it is SuperMAN and Lois Lane is a woman, they’ll fall in love, blah blah blah.

Bay might, in fact, be learning that…but do you really think he gives a flying fig?

Bay will do what Bay wants to do…and create the sci-fi equivalent to “Ishtar” & “Heaven’s Gate”, which were such cinematic turkeys that they should’ve come in a wrapper with the label “Butterball” on them.

Isn’t this movie wrapped up and ready for release, if Jimmy has in fact had a sex change is there anything they can do about it now and will it really have an effect on anyone’s decision to go see what will hopefully be an epic piece of cinema.

I don’t think Jenny will even have much of a part. She is listed so far down the credits… Beneath “Young Mother” and “Pete Ross Age 13″… As for JGL, I would have to say no, for the fact that Bruce Wayne was the Batman in the JL stories… Not Grayson, Not Blake…

I personally don’t care and I think it actually makes things more interesting than just doing the same damn thing that’s been done in TV and Films for 70 odd years. Fans complained when a brit was cast as Superman, Amy Adam’s Lois Lane having red hair, when they considered Diane Lane too youung or Hot for Martha Kent, with Fishburne playing Perry, and now a woman playing Jimmy. Its 2013 , not 1933. As long as the story is good and the character dynamics work, I won’t complain.